Episode 301 - People with Money
Mac Taylor's romantic tryst with ME Peyton Driscoll is cut short when they're both called to the same murder scene. Sam McFarland lies dead on the Brooklyn Bridge, a Statue of Liberty key chain buried in his chest and ligature marks around his neck. Across the water, windows in the building Sam worked in light up to spell out 'Marry Me.' The CSIs learn Sam was seeing a woman named Erica Lancaster, but when they visit the bereaved woman and her father, Denny, they learn Sam was suppose to pick Erica up from the airport but never showed up. The ring Sam had doesn't fit Erica's finger, suggesting he was planning to propose to someone else. Stella examines the keys attached to the key ring Sam was killed with, while Lindsay focuses on dynamite found on his tie.
Across town, Danny and Dr. Hawkes greet Detective Jennifer Angell, who shows them the badly beaten body of socialite Vanessa May, who lies dead in her underwear, bruises covering her body and pillows on her hands. Vanessa's friend, Margo, found her and tried to revive her. Danny discovers ten grand in the pocket of Vanessa's jacket. Sid Hammerback confirms blunt force trauma was the COD, and points out a tongue print on her body from a tequila body shot as well as the imprint from a designer LSD tab on Vanessa's tongue. Danny and Angell track down the dealer, Picasso, who admits to seeing her at Prowl but claims her bodyguard beat him up when he tried to approach her. Blood on Vanessa's coat matches a man named Clarence Rome, but he denies killing Vanessa. He wanted to work for her, and challenged her bodyguard to a fight for employment, which he lost.
The Statue of Liberty key chain proves to be a dead end when the owner of the keys turns up in the morgue, an apparent suicide. Traces of prenatal vitamins on lipstick marks found on Sam's face further puzzle the CSIs. Lindsay suspects Erica is the culprit--a patch on her arm to treat a spider bite could contain trace amounts of dynamite--but Mac and Stella remind her about the importance of gathering evidence, not forming hunches, and send her back to the drawing board. An earring on the bridge leads the CSIs to a young woman named Cassidy who was having bungee sex with her boyfriend at the time of Sam's death, but while the couple saw his dead body, they deny any involvement or seeing anyone else around.
A lollipop stick in one of their shoes directs the CSIs to the Lollipop strip club, where they find Dori, a stripper pregnant with Sam's child. She admits to being involved with Sam, but she turned down his marriage proposal because three months prior he'd tried to give her a check for forty grand to stay out of his life. Lindsay has cleared Erica by discovering the location of the dynamite on Sam's tie indicates she was tying his tie for him, not strangling him. The CSIs turn to surveillance camera photos, where they discover a light was on briefly in Sam's office. When they investigate, Stella discovers the shredded remains of a check. Lindsay pieces it together--it's the check addressed made out to Dori, but it's signed by Denny Lancaster, Erica's father. He tried to bully Sam into marrying his daughter, but when Sam rebelled, Denny tried to strangle him and then stabbed him.
Danny and Angell track down Asad, Vanessa's bodyguard, whose tongue print matches the one on her belly. He admits to doing a body shot off her and fighting with Clarence, but not to being in her apartment. The CSIs realize he's lying when they learn Prowl doesn't serve tequila shots. Danny, Angell, and Hawkes interrogate Margo, Clarence and Asad separately, piecing together what happened. The three of them returned with Vanessa to her apartment and continued to drink. Margo, envious of Vanessa, challenged her to a fight of sorts, and the girls began to fight with pillows on their hands. But the gloves came off literally when Margo, angry at Vanessa's superiority complex, pulled the pillows from her hands and began to punch Vanessa in earnest. She claims she never intended to kill Vanessa, but that no one would have believed it was an accident. Danny tells her he would have, but because she tried to cover it up, no one will now. The cases closed, Mac worries about his relationship with Peyton interfering with their jobs. She assures him it won't and he pulls her into a kiss.